1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to social networks, and more particularly to collectively giving a gift to a user in a social network.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a user of a networking website connects with other users by providing information about the user to a social network website for access by the other users. For example, a user may post contact information, background information, current job position, hobbies, and so forth. Information about personal events may also be posted by a user, for example on personal webpages, web logs (BLOGS), etc. Such posts may include information about the user's birthday, anniversaries, special events, gifts received, gifts given, purchases made, etc. Other users may contact the user and/or review information about the user based on common interests or for any other reason.
Recently, social networking websites have developed systems for tailoring connections between various users. For example, users may be grouped based on geographical location, job type, and so forth. Social networking offers users the opportunity for frequent, automatic notification of changes in the information posted by other users. Even more recently, a social networking website has developed a system enabling a user of the network to purchase a gift and give the gift to another user via the social network. For example, one user may give another user a gift for the birthday of the recipient. In various embodiments, both the user who gives the gift and the user who receives the gift may be friends or members of a group in the social network. Other friends of the recipient or users within the group may also choose to give birthday gifts to the recipient. However, the value of the gifts may be limited by the resources of the individuals of the group and some of the gifts may be repetitive.